King Solomon's warnings on the use of alcohol are as applicable today as they were 2,900 years ago when he reigned over Israel.

Russian icon of King Solomon depicted holding a model of the Temple.
18th century, iconostasis of Kizhi monastery, Russia.

Proverbs 23:29-35
Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
    Who has strife? Who has complaints?
    Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?
Those who linger over wine,
    who go to sample bowls of mixed wine.
Do not gaze at wine when it is red,
    when it sparkles in the cup,
    when it goes down smoothly!
In the end it bites like a snake
    and poisons like a viper.
Your eyes will see strange sights,
    and your mind will imagine confusing things.
You will be like one sleeping on the high seas,
    lying on top of the rigging.
“They hit me,” you will say, “but I’m not hurt!   
    They beat me, but I don’t feel it!
When will I wake up
    so I can find another drink?”

Proverbs 31:3-7
Do not spend your strength on women,
    your vigor on those who ruin kings.
It is not for kings, Lemuel—
    it is not for kings to drink wine,
    not for rulers to crave beer,
lest they drink and forget what has been decreed,
    and deprive all the oppressed of their rights.
Let beer be for those who are perishing,
    wine for those who are in anguish!
Let them drink and forget their poverty
    and remember their misery no more.

Results of the ISCD 2010 study ranking the levels of damage caused by drugs,
in the opinion of drug-harm experts in the UK. When harm to self and others is summed,
alcohol was the most harmful of all drugs considered, scoring 72%.

34. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. 35. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.

The Drunkard's Progress: A lithograph by Nathaniel Currier
supporting the temperance movement, January 1846.

Charles Bridges (1794-1869) explains:

A warning was lately given against keeping company with sensualists. (Verses 20, 21.) Here it is enforced by the most graphical delineation of the sin in all its misery, shame, and ruin. It is the drunkard's looking-glass! Let him see his own face. Let it be hung: up in his cottage. Fix it in the alehouse. Could he go there? The picture is drawn with such a vividness of colouring! 'No translation or paraphrase can do justice to the concise, abrupt, and energetic manner of the original.' Drunkenness is a time of merriment. But what must be the stupifying insensibility, that can find a moment's joy, with such an accumulation of woe! Every sin brings its own mischief. But such woe! such sorrow! in all its multiform misery! who hath it? The brawls and contentions over the cup; the babbling words of pollution; the wounds, often to murder, without cause; the redness of eyes, shewing the effect of liquor on the countenance; the impure appetites that are kindled; the infatuation almost incredible--this is sensuality in all its wretchedness.


The Drunkenness of Noah by Giovanni Bellini, 1515.

Whence this world of woe and sorrow? It is the curse of indulged will. Not satisfied with their healthful refreshment, many will "add drunkenness to thirst." (Deut. xxix. 19.) They continue long, "from morning to night, till wine inflame them." (Isa. v. 11.) They go to seek the mixed wine, its strongest and most inebriating drink.

Wisdom's voice therefore is--Avoid the allurements of sin. Often has a look, harmless in itself, proved a fearful temptation. Look not therefore at the wine when it is red. Its very colour; its sparkling transparency in the cup; the relish with which it moves itself aright, 'or goes down pleasant'--all tend to excite the irregular appetite. Crush it in its beginnings, and prove that you have learnt the first lesson in the school of Christ--"Deny yourself." Whatever be its present zest, at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. (Comp. chap. xx. 17.) Did it bite first, who would touch it? Did Satan present the cup in his own naked form, who would dare to take it? Yet it comes from his hand as truly, as if he were visible to the eyes. If poison was seen in the cup, who would venture upon it? Yet is the poison less dangerous, because it is unseen? The adder's sting is concealed, yet most fatal. The cup of sparkling wine becomes "a cup of fearful trembling in the hands of the Lord." (Comp. Joel, i. 5.)

USA Happy New Year postcard, 1912.

Seldom does any sensual indulgence come alone. One lust prepares the way for others. The first step is sure to lead onwards. The poor deluded victim cannot stop when he pleases. Drunkenness opens the door for impurity. The inflamed eye soon catches fire with strange women; and who knoweth what the end may be? Loathsome indeed is the heart of the ungodly laid bare. Drink opens it as far as words can do; and through the organ of the tongue it does indeed utter perverse things. 'Blasphemy is wit, and ribaldry eloquence, to a man that is turned into a brute.'

But the delirium is the most awful feature of the case. The unhappy victim, having lost all will and power to escape, sleeps quietly amid dangers as imminent, as lying down in the midst of the sea, or upon the top of the mast. Nay--even the senses seem to be stupified. Stricken and beaten he may be. But "his heart is as a stone," and he thanks his drunkenness, that he felt it not. Therefore "as the dog to his vomit, the fool returns to his folly," craving fresh indulgence--When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again. More senseless than the brute who satisfies nature, not lust; so lost to shame; his reason so tyrannized over by his appetite, that he longs to be bound again, and only seeks relief from his temporary awakening to a sense of his misery, by yielding himself up again to his ruinous sin. (Jer. ii. 25.)

A drunken man, Georg Emanuel Opitz,1804.

Oh! how affecting is the thought of the multitude of victims to this deadly vice in every age and clime, and among all ranks of society! Perhaps there is no sin which has not linked itself with it; while the unconsciousness in the act of sin only serves, not to palliate the guilt, but to increase the responsibility.

While we see the whole nature so depraved in taste, so steeped in pollution--we ask--"Is anything too hard for the Lord?" Praised be his name for a full deliverance from the captivity of sin, and of all and every sin, even from the chains of this giant sin. The mighty, though despised instrument is "Christ crucified; the power of God, and the wisdom of God." (1 Cor. i. 23-25.) It is this, which when vows, pledges, and resolutions-all have failed; works secretly, yet most effectually; imparting new principles, affections and appetites. The drunkard becomes sober; the unclean holy; the glutton temperate. The love of Christ overpowers the love of sin. Pleasures are now enjoyed without a sting (for no serpent, nor adder is here) and the newly implanted principle transforms the whole man into the original likeness to God--"Whatsoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. He that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not."



Wine is a Mocker by Jan Steen, 1663/1664

3. Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings. 4. It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine: nor for princes strong drink: 5. Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert (alter, marg.) the judgment of any of the afflicted, (all the sons of affliction, marg.) 6. Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts (bitter of soul, marg.) 7. Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.

William Hogarth's Gin Lane, 1751.

Charles Bridges (1794-1869) explains:

Solomon has given us his father's wise counsels. (Chap. iv. 4.) Lemuel gives us his mother's. Both have an equal claim to reverence. (Chap. i. 8.) Filled with deep anxiety, the impassioned tenderness bursts out in this godly mother, as if some besetting enticements were imminent, perhaps already working poison in her beloved son. What! my son--the son of my womb--of my vows? My heart is full. I must give vent. Have I endured all this travail in vain? Beware--Give not thy strength unto women. What a beacon had Solomon set up! (Chap. ii. v. vii.) What a beacon had he himself become! (Neh. xiii. 26.) These forbidden gratifications were ways that destroy kings. Such was the judgment upon David. His kingly authority was shaken. (2 Sam. xii. 9, 10.) Solomon's sin destroyed his kingdom. (1 Kings, xi. 11.) The fruit of this sin is shame. The end of it, without repentance, is death.




William Hogarth, A Midnight Modern Conversation, 1731.

The anxious mother next warns against another cognate sin--intemperance. (Hos. iv. 11.) The vice that degrades a man into a beast, is shameful to all, specially unseemly for kings. They are "the city set upon a hill." Men look, or ought to look, to them for guidance and example. What a sight for kings to drink wine and strong drink--to be given to it! Witness Elah--Benhadad--Belshazzar--"the princes of Israel made sick with bottles of wine!" How was their high office and glory covered with shame! Sometimes it is pleaded as an excuse for sin. But if the drunken king forgets the law, and perverts the judgment, will he not be held responsible? Ahasuerus was doubtless responsible for his unseemly conduct to Vashti. Herod murdered the Baptist at an ungodly feast. Priest and prophet "err through strong drink." A wise veto therefore is set for the rulers of the Church--"not given to wine."

A monk-cellarer tasting wine from a barrel while filling a jug
(from an illuminated manuscript of the 13th century)

And yet the abuse of God's blessing does not destroy their use. Wine is the gift of God. " It maketh glad the heart of man." (Ps. civ. 14, 15.) Yea--by a bold figure of its refreshment--it is said to "cheer God" also. (Judg. ix. 13.) Yet it is not for kings--for their indulgences and sinful excitement, but for those that need it. As restoratives and refreshments cordials are seasonable in the hour of need. Give strong drink to him that is ready to perish, as the Samaritan gave it to the wounded traveller (Luke, x. 34); as Paul prescribed it for "the infirmities" of his beloved son in the faith. (1 Tim. v. 23.) Many a sinking spirit may be revived, and forget his misery under a well-timed restorative. The rule therefore of love and self-denial is--Instead of wasting that upon thyself, in the indulgence of appetite, which will only debase thy nature; see that thou dispense thy luxuries among those, who really require them. Seek out cases of penury and wasting misery. Let it be an honour to thee to bring in the poor that is cast out into thine house, that he may forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more. May not this remind us of the Messenger of love, dealing with those that are ready to perish? (Isa. lxi. 1,2. Matt. xi. 28.) Their conscience is loaded with guilt. Their hearts are heavy with a burden which they can neither bear nor be rid of. He tells them of God's love to sinners; the ransom found for them; the welcome assured to them. This is a cordial of strong drink, and wine such as they need. The heavy heart becomes "no more sad." (1 Sam. i. 18. Acts, xvi. 34.) The former poverty is forgotten, and his misery is remembered no more, and "the blessing of him that was ready to perish comes" upon him " that bringeth the good tidings." Happy minister, gifted like his divine Master, with the "tongue of the learned, that he should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary." (Isa. 1. 4.)

Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek
by Dieric Bouts the Elder, 1464 - 1467.

Source: Source: Bridges, Charles. A Commentary on Proverbs. New York/Pittsburgh: R. Carter, 1847, pages 442-444, 617.

Jesus transforming water into wine in
The Marriage at Cana,
a 14th-century fresco
from the Visoki Dečani monastery.